Judicial claims for medical error and its impact on the mental health of professionals

• DOI: 10.22533/at.ed.1593342310059

• Palavras-chave: medical errors, malpractice, stress, demand.

• Keywords: medical errors, malpractice, stress, demand.

• Abstract:

  Judicial demands have increasingly become a concern in society, and the medical field is one of the areas that have suffered the most from this increase. This work aimed to review part of the available literature, inquiring, above all, what effects the physician sued for alleged malpractice may suffer, and, at the same time, seeking to elucidate the most affected specialties and the degree of success of litigation. It was found that the surgical areas receive more lawsuits, and that the percentage of convictions has dropped, despite the value of indemnities gradually rising. Whether or not they lose the lawsuits, the majority of physicians suffer psychic, organic and behavioral sequelae. The prospect of becoming the target of a lawsuit causes many professionals, even those not personally reached, to adopt defensive and evasive medicine practices, causing harmful repercussions on the costs of the health system and on patient care in general.